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Being Denominational
Monday’s Message – On Being Denominational – In our Young Adult Class studying “Is the Church a Denomination?” we spent several weeks defining words because words are important because they form ideas. This was part of the process of biblically beginning with and understanding the words “congregations”, then “heresies” being taught, “sects” being formed, and finally “denominations”. All the other words are found in the Bible except denomination which was coined to describe a concept that did not exist in Biblical times among God’s people. That itself is telling.
The word denomination itself is not evil. It simply means 1) to name; 2) to organize wherein something is part of the whole. Being a denomination is ironically a form of unity. Biblically speaking, not all unity is blessed by God. A person is “nominated” and a $5 bill is a denomination of American money.
A common example of this is if we exclusively name ourselves as “Church of Christ” and become “Church of Christ Christians” and I become a “Church of Christ preacher.” I am not, and you shouldn’t be either. When doing evangelism I tell people “We are the WS church of Christ and we go by any other name you find in the Bible too.” Technically “name” is not technically correct so I should say “we go by any other description.”
Another example is if we organize each local congregation as part of the “Congregations of the Church of Christ.” Do we unknowingly denominate ourselves when we endorse another church solely because it agrees with us on just a few issues and therefore is “sound”? Does it love? Does it show mercy? Does it focus on both the heavy and light laws of God?
Unfortunately some of us have seen where people have “denominated” Christ’s people.
We fear “being like the denominations” or being “denominational” when we as a local congregation try something different. That’s not what the word means. Let’s use language accurately. If something is wrong, it is because it is “heretical” or unscripural. If it is not wrong then “because the denominations do it” is not a scriptural argument. Think of the irony in using an unscripural argument to denounce something which is not unscripural which is exactly what many denominations do!
It’s hard to be undenominational in today’s denominational world. It starts with how each of us thinks, then how each speaks, and finally how “we” act.
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